Judging by the smirk on the face of the Sultan of Solo, the businessman from North Sumatra has just made a mistake. And a costly one at that, too. He has paid way too much for merging his rubber company with the Sultan’s extensive rubber plantations: there are no ships in the area to transport the rubber to the booming cities of Java. And the Sultan is now dripping in cash — he can bribe city authorities so that his ships will gain preferential access to those ports where they are competing. Or he might invest in building an oil imperium. But wait — what’s that young fellow over there up to? Buying all the shipping lines? That might change the outlook … considerably, in fact … let’s see…